


Burning Bridges

by trashcocoon



Category: Death Note
Genre: Childhood, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-10
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-04-25 16:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4967293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashcocoon/pseuds/trashcocoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mello didn't always hate Near. Why Matt is thinking about this now, he has no idea. It's not like it matters anymore- he might as well have always hated him considering where they are now.</p>
<p>In which the Wammy's Boys are friends and roommates and they spend an afternoon playing with trains.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burning Bridges

Mello didn't always hate Near. Why Matt is thinking about this now, he has no idea. It's not like it matters anymore- he might as well have always hated him considering where they are now. But it hadn't always been like this- the two of them, Near and Mello, glaring at each other from opposite ends of a betting table. It had actually been the three of them, believe it or not- the best friends, the package deal- the inseparable trio. ****** Near was hunched over on the cream-colored carpet stained in places by little muddy feet with one hand in his thick, downy hair and the other laying down plastic train tracks. Matt was on his left, trying to ignore the aches in his back as he leaned against the bed with his Gameboy held up close to his face; his vision was getting blurry from the proximity, and he squinted his eyes to see the moving pixels better. Mello was lying on his stomach on the burgundy bed covers, his blonde hair tickling Matt's face as he dangled his head in between the two of them; out of the corner of his eye, Matt could see him kicking his slender legs back and forth- first one then the other. Golden sunlight streamed in through the window, the maple trees outside giving it a crinkle-cut pattern where it fell on the floor and walls around them. Matt scowled and paused his game- damn sunlight, painting his screens and lenses and surfaces in dust. Near, sensing his annoyance, turned to him and dangled a railroad track in front of his face. "Want to help?" Matt grudgingly rearranged himself so he was facing Near and began building a bridge. Video games were better than toys, but at least toys weren't rendered useless when they got dust on them. "Near, use a curved piece there, or you're gonna run into the nightstand," Mello said, pointing. Near frowned slightly. "I know, but if I do that it'll go under my bed." "No big deal," said Mello, sitting up and swinging around so his legs dangled over the edge of the bed. "You can just snake it right underneath and then keep building on the other side." "Wait, I have a better idea," said Matt, adjusting his goggles excitedly. "Why don't we use the bed like a bridge? We can have the tracks make a bunch of cool loops and stuff and build, like, a town on Near's bed with another track running through it." Per usual, Near's face didn't betray a hint of emotion, but there was an intrigued gleam in his normally solemn gray eyes. Mello abruptly stopped banging his legs against the side of the bed as a devious smile curled slowly across his face. "You know what would be even better? If we built it across the whole room." He swept his finger through the air in a swirling motion. "It can trail all over the floor and under and around the furniture and stop in all sorts of different towns we can build." Now Near smiled. Mello scrambled off the bed and grabbed a handful of train tracks. They worked quickly, reaching the underside of the bed in no time. They all holed up together in that dusty cavern, that dark, quiet world just for the three of them to share secret words and smiles nobody else would ever see. Near's eyes were seemingly focused on the train tracks, but Matt caught him gazing at them through long eyelashes when he thought they weren't looking- secretly happy to be there with his favorite people in the world. The floor was cold, but Matt was warm from Mello and Near pressing against him on either side and refused to look either of them in the eyes when he found three little dolls that bore a striking resemblance to them and carefully arranged them side by side in front of a plastic ice cream parlor. Mello hummed softly under his breath, the song they'd been learning in music class yesterday, stealing glances at Matt and Near's faces and looking away the second they looked back at him. Soon the train tracks spilled out the other side of the bed and they all got up and started clearing the mess of books, notebooks, chocolate bar wrappers, a striped shirt, and three toy cars off of it. Matt tugged on the end of the covers to smooth them out and they got to work making a sprawling village on top. Near made a perfectly symmetrical castle out of big Legos and Mello perched a flag made out of a Popsicle stick and a sticky note that said M N M on it on top. Matt put a row of plastic dragons next to the road and houses made of alphabet blocks and bits of cardboard scattered around.  
Hours flew by, and by the time the sun was beginning to sink behind the trees the train tracks went under Near and Matt's beds and over Mello's, around the dresser twice, up a mountain of dirty laundry, in the closet and back out again. One of the stations was in the middle of an alien abduction, one was being held up by cowboys, one was getting a visit from the queen, one was being taken over by ninjas and another had its own little Wammy's House parked right next to it. Matt was so busy bringing cowboys over by train to the ninja station to fight off Near's ninjas and Mello's aliens he forgot about dinner. After they finished, Roger accompanied them back to their room to chastise them for being late. Upon seeing the train tracks however, he instead brought back a camera to take a picture of them with it. "You don't need to take a picture of it, were never taking it down," said Mello crossly. "Can I take it?" asked Matt eagerly. "I want you to be in it, but if you want to take pictures of it afterward that's okay," said Roger. That night they played with their train tracks way past curfew, using whispers and flashlights so as not to alert the matron when it got too dark. But little boys have to get tired sometime, and they eventually ended up all falling asleep in Matt's bed, Matt's head resting on Mello's chest like a pillow while he lay on his back, Mello's chin resting on Near's head and Near holding onto his arm like a teddy bear. ********** Matt is thinking about this as he stares at the creased and torn photograph by the light of the fire. In it he is wearing a ridiculously huge smile, his goggles are on lopsided, and he is pointing to the castle Near made. Mello's hair is tangled and his face is flushed from just having gotten up from under one of the beds, and he has an arm thrown around Near's shoulders, a half-eaten chocolate bar in his hand. Near has his head ducked but is looking at the camera from under his hair and his right hand is cupped protectively around the Matt and Mello dolls. "What are you doing?" Mello asks, walking over to him. "Nothing," says Matt quickly, dropping the picture into the flames as Mello walks away again to get more pictures. It's not like it matters anymore, he thinks as he watches the train tracks and their faces melt and curl up; the way things are now, it hardly matters how much they'd all liked each other in the past.


End file.
